Post by myrabeth on Apr 7, 2019 13:03:55 GMT -8
This event was designed specifically for Spuffy writers with EF accounts. If the idea catches the attention of HG muses who do not play in that specific sandbox, said muses are strongly encouraged to steal the concept for their own fandoms, and adjust it to suit the structures of their preferred archives.
What if a bunch of us HG Spuffy writers found or created a story challenge we all wanted to respond to? What if we posted those responses in relatively quick succession, and connected the individual takes on that challenge under the umbrella of a single series? Wouldn't that be a fun, interesting way to show off the massive amounts of talent contained in this little community?
Here's how it would work:
1. Start a discussion/nomination process about what EF challenges would be suited to the following parameters:
(a) A minimum of 5 HG authors are interested in writing for the challenge or some variation of it. (We mean to be quite flexible on what qualifies as a 'challenge response' with this- from minor tweaks to adding or subtracting significant elements, or even concocting and posting a challenge created in-house- whatever it takes to reach something easily workable for the group.)
(b) There is room within the challenge for different authors to take very different approaches to both the storytelling and the tone, while each retains a recognizable thematic and/or plot similarity to the challenge. Basically, we're looking for narrow, but not constraining.
(c) The challenge is suited to /can be made suitable for a one-shot (or a short multi-chapter story). We're intentionally not looking for major, time-sucking epics with this project.
2. Finalist(s) for the group challenge get copied into an Event channel on Discord, to undergo necessary alterations by all who wish to participate, until all parties are happy with the challenge's conditions.
3. Every participant writes his or her own take on the challenge.
4. Posting to EF. One of us will be the series “owner,” and collect the stories into a series as they are posted. But because this collaboration is not a co-written project, all bylines and word counts will remain with the individual authors.
5. Each story will contain a reference to the series and a link to HG's Discord in the Story notes. We're not just showing off our wealth of in-house talent. We're hoping to expand it. If people like what we're doing, and want in on our community -and maybe the next round of this event- they can click the link and join us. To make it easy for our authors, I can construct a preset mini-blurb to copy and paste into Story notes.
That's a lot of words for a very simple concept, I know. Basically, we'd collaborate on a premise, but write individual stories. We'd even post individually, but link the stories together via the Series function. And now I'm going to try to anticipate your questions:
Yes, your fic can crossover into other fandoms, but please consider the lower readership such stories usually get before you make that decision and determine your approach to the crossover.
Yes, you can swing for the fences on the genre, or at least take a very unexpected tone from the concept. If you have the impulse to turn a challenge based around The Gift into a comedy, or play out a Beer Bad premise as a heartbreaking angst-fest, go for it. It will add to the fun for the readers.
Yes, the rating of your story is entirely up to you. The series will be set to the highest rating of the posted stories, with a note in the summary about the variety contained therein.
Yes, your story can be multi-chaptered. Yes, it can be added to the series while it is a WIP. We're aiming for “one-shot friendly” concepts, but muses don't always play by the rules.
Yes, this event will be repeated if it proves to be successful and enjoyable. So if you want in, but can't do it right now, another round is likely to come. Long term, we're hoping to make this a semi-annual event, with a Summer round and a Winter round.
Proposed schedule for Round 1:
April-Early May: Getting feedback on the event itself and setting up the first challenge
Remainder of May-June: Writing time, correcting any hiccups in the event structure
June: Story Posting Month.
(If you can't post in June for whatever reason, no problem. The beauty of a series structure -in comparison to a co-writing set up- is that we aren't locked into posting in a specific order or on a specific schedule. June is a goal, not a deadline.)
Thoughts? Ideas? Challenges you've had saved for ages that you'd like to see the HG community play with? Sniggering at some obvious problem or missing step in this plan I should have caught, but didn't? Add to the thread below.
What if a bunch of us HG Spuffy writers found or created a story challenge we all wanted to respond to? What if we posted those responses in relatively quick succession, and connected the individual takes on that challenge under the umbrella of a single series? Wouldn't that be a fun, interesting way to show off the massive amounts of talent contained in this little community?
Here's how it would work:
1. Start a discussion/nomination process about what EF challenges would be suited to the following parameters:
(a) A minimum of 5 HG authors are interested in writing for the challenge or some variation of it. (We mean to be quite flexible on what qualifies as a 'challenge response' with this- from minor tweaks to adding or subtracting significant elements, or even concocting and posting a challenge created in-house- whatever it takes to reach something easily workable for the group.)
(b) There is room within the challenge for different authors to take very different approaches to both the storytelling and the tone, while each retains a recognizable thematic and/or plot similarity to the challenge. Basically, we're looking for narrow, but not constraining.
(c) The challenge is suited to /can be made suitable for a one-shot (or a short multi-chapter story). We're intentionally not looking for major, time-sucking epics with this project.
2. Finalist(s) for the group challenge get copied into an Event channel on Discord, to undergo necessary alterations by all who wish to participate, until all parties are happy with the challenge's conditions.
3. Every participant writes his or her own take on the challenge.
4. Posting to EF. One of us will be the series “owner,” and collect the stories into a series as they are posted. But because this collaboration is not a co-written project, all bylines and word counts will remain with the individual authors.
5. Each story will contain a reference to the series and a link to HG's Discord in the Story notes. We're not just showing off our wealth of in-house talent. We're hoping to expand it. If people like what we're doing, and want in on our community -and maybe the next round of this event- they can click the link and join us. To make it easy for our authors, I can construct a preset mini-blurb to copy and paste into Story notes.
That's a lot of words for a very simple concept, I know. Basically, we'd collaborate on a premise, but write individual stories. We'd even post individually, but link the stories together via the Series function. And now I'm going to try to anticipate your questions:
Yes, your fic can crossover into other fandoms, but please consider the lower readership such stories usually get before you make that decision and determine your approach to the crossover.
Yes, you can swing for the fences on the genre, or at least take a very unexpected tone from the concept. If you have the impulse to turn a challenge based around The Gift into a comedy, or play out a Beer Bad premise as a heartbreaking angst-fest, go for it. It will add to the fun for the readers.
Yes, the rating of your story is entirely up to you. The series will be set to the highest rating of the posted stories, with a note in the summary about the variety contained therein.
Yes, your story can be multi-chaptered. Yes, it can be added to the series while it is a WIP. We're aiming for “one-shot friendly” concepts, but muses don't always play by the rules.
Yes, this event will be repeated if it proves to be successful and enjoyable. So if you want in, but can't do it right now, another round is likely to come. Long term, we're hoping to make this a semi-annual event, with a Summer round and a Winter round.
Proposed schedule for Round 1:
April-Early May: Getting feedback on the event itself and setting up the first challenge
Remainder of May-June: Writing time, correcting any hiccups in the event structure
June: Story Posting Month.
(If you can't post in June for whatever reason, no problem. The beauty of a series structure -in comparison to a co-writing set up- is that we aren't locked into posting in a specific order or on a specific schedule. June is a goal, not a deadline.)
Thoughts? Ideas? Challenges you've had saved for ages that you'd like to see the HG community play with? Sniggering at some obvious problem or missing step in this plan I should have caught, but didn't? Add to the thread below.